Familiar
by Xerxes Glace Hydro
Summary: Memories aren't supposed to be hazy. They also shouldn't take the form of a deceased child. Jack, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind.


**This was the first drabble in Mirrored Ideals.**

**Familiar**

Jack's mind occasionally wandered.

To where, he didn't know.

Wasn't really sure.

Nothing made sense.

His memories haunted him.

And yet he could never recall what it was about them that frightened him so.

Heck, he couldn't even remember when they took place.

What they were about.

They haunted him, and yet he didn't even know what happened.

Bizarre.

So, so strange.

Just like himself.

**His screams echoed throughout the porcelain room.**

Jack was never sure where the screams came from.

They sounded like his.

But he knew that they weren't.

_No, too young._

He always told himself that.

_They aren't mine._

On a rare occasion, Jack sometimes felt a hand on his cheek, or arms around his waist.

He would turn, to see nothing there.

_So familiar._

Jack would not tense.

No, rather he would relax.

It was too familiar for him not to.

_**"Do you remember me?"**_

The voice would whisper in Jack's ear, ever so softly, every night.

It was a calming, childlike voice.

It sounded similar to his own when he was younger.

Yet it wasn't his.

"_I can hear you."_

The voice would chuckle happily at Jack's response.

"_**Do you know who I am?"**_

Jack would feel a sort of weight resting on his chest.

As though a small child were laying on him.

He was never aggravated by this.

"_There, there."_

On occasion, he would look up to see the child there.

"_Hello."_

A pale, ghostly figure, the child was.

He somewhat resembled Jack.

At first, Jack could never place a name on the frail form.

The long, loosely-stitched gash from the boy's collar bone to his stomach.

It brought back several memories.

Haunting memories.

Why was it so familiar?

"_**Remember when you were younger?**_

_**They poked your third eye too much."**_

Ah, that.

"_Yes, I recall."_

That gash along the child's chest.

Jack really wished the doctors would have done a better job.

He could still see the boy's heart.

"_A shame that won't heal._

_They mutilated yours*."_

The child would smile at this; a faint smile.

"_**They did.**_

_**They paid with their lives.**_

_**Thank you."**_

The child's scarlet eyes.

They were captivating, Jack would think.

He would cup his hand around the child's cheek, his hand soon dripping with crimson.

He was never sure why the boy's eyes constantly bled.

"_Your tears are dripping all over your clothes."_

Jack would wipe the boy's face clean with no further word.

His tears had left a permanent stain on his cheeks.

His silvery gray hair was oddly beautiful.

Jack never could quite understand why.

He would shiver as the child traced a faded scar with a frigid finger.

"_**At least your cut has healed."**_

Jack glanced at the scar on his own chest, recalling the agony.

He placed his own hand upon it, and felt his third eye blink under his flesh.

He could never fathom how an eye could end up embedded in one's heart**.

"_I wish it hadn't._

_I'd rather have the eye exposed**."_

Jack glanced at the details of the boy's clothing.

A monotonous gray, their appearance a copy of Jack's coat and pants.

He was amazed at how vibrant the child's eyes were, compared to the rest of him.

A peculiar figure, especially for a long-departed spirit.

The child had never left Jack, even after fifteen years since his death.

He couldn't help but become curious why that was.

Perhaps it was because he was the younger one***.

"_I thank you for your persistance._

_It's nice to know someone cares for me, even here._

_Thank you so much._

_You've no idea how much this means to me, Pride."_

The child chuckled in delight, clearly satisfied with his name having been said.

Jack held Pride closer to him, ignoring the cold the child emanated.

"_**I would never leave you for the world.**_

_**I love you too much for that.**_

_**You make me so happy, brother."**_

Jack smiled and nuzzled his older twin.

He pulled Pride into a tight, loving embrace.

"_You're safe now, Pride._

_I'll protect you with all of my power._

_I won't allow them to hurt you again._

_I love you, Pride."_

**You have no idea how bored I was when writing this. Inspired by DancingQueen21's "Hear me, for I am the King!" so go read it.**

***"They mutilated yours," is referring to how Pride's third eye was killed/mutilated/etc.**

****The first sentence vaguely implied that Jack was born with an eye in his heart, the sentence before stating that said eye 'blinked' under his skin. The next marked phrase was Jack saying that he wanted to have his third eye exposed, rather than having it tightly covered by layers of flesh and skin.**

*****Jack is 'the younger one' despite Pride appearing to be a child; this only happens because Pride was murdered at the age of five. Jack is twenty in this drabble, and if Pride is only slightly older than Jack since they're twins, then it can be assumed that Pride is also twenty, and thus is in his five-year-old form if he died fifteen years prior.**

**I hate footnotes, too.**


End file.
